By A terse demo of Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon: Majiyo to Otome to Gojin no Yuusha went live on the Japanese Nintendo Channel. I grabbed it to see some of the new games in Square Enix’s new Chocobo mini-game collection and was entertained for about five minutes. Why so short? Square Enix only put two mini-games in the demo. :(
In Bukubuku Bubble Panic a chocobo is encased in a bubble and you slide him on the touch screen into other bubbles. As you grab bubbles the chocobo’s bubble grows which makes him vulnerable to the bouncing spikes. Hit one of those and you lose precious points. The multi-colored orb is your only friend in this game. Touch it and all of the spikes vanish. You might be wondering what “bukubuku” means. It’s Japanese onomatopoeia for a falling water drop.
Tonberry Dooko Da? has players track slow moving Tonberrys. The game starts out with one Tonberry. It walks for a bit and then the screen turns pitch black. You don’t see where it goes completely, but you get a good idea before the screen goes dark. All you have to do is tap the area where the Tonberry is to earn points. If you put the spotlight dead center on a Tonberry you get three points. Otherwise you earn one point. Miss the Tonberry and it’s game over. The first rounds of Tonberry Dooko Da? are pretty easy, but things get tricky fast since the game gives you more Tonberrys to keep track of.
Would I buy Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book: The Witch, the Girl, and the Five Heroes based on the demo? No, it wasn’t very good. Now that I think about it if I had to judge Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales by its individual mini-games I wouldn’t think it was a very good game either. Online pop-up battles and a charming fractured fairytale story made Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales memorable. Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book: The Witch, the Girl, and the Five Heroes does have pop-up card battles and hopefully for Square Enix a cute tale to go along with it.
Long story short: Square Enix needs to make better DS demos.
Images courtesy of Square Enix.
